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Vegetables and succulents are an essential part of people's diet and important components in the food pyramid due to the presence of various vitamins, antioxidants, mineral salts and micronutrients.Vegetables and fruits are considered to be the most consumed agricultural products, and a significant part of their consumption is raw or semi-processed.Therefore, in the case of contamination, they are a means of transmitting pathogenic bacteria, parasites and viruses and cause disease in humans and also increase the prevalence of food-borne diseases. Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella and Escherichia coli are among the pathogens that have been isolated from vegetables.
Studies show that in recent years, the occurrence of food-related diseases has increased due to the consumption of fruits and vegetables.
In this project, the microbial health of two products of lettuce (representative of leafy vegetables) and cucumber (representative of summer vegetables) presented in the fruit and vegetable fields of Karaj and Tehran, in terms of microbial contamination, including the total count of microorganisms, the count of coliforms, the count of faecal coliforms (Escherichia coli), Salmonella, Enterobacteriaceae and Staphylococcus aureus and parasitic infections were investigated. 40 samples of each product were checked based on random sampling, once in two weeks and for one year (in four seasons). Using descriptive statistics, the mean, standard deviation and percentage of parasite and each bacteria contamination were reported separately in different cultivars, different seasons of the year, packaging, planting type (farm or greenhouse) and production locations.
The results showed that the evaluated microbial indices were influenced by the studied treatments in most cases. Salmonella was not observed in any of the examined samples of cucumber and lettuce. Only sample number 16 of cucumber (C16) and sample number 22 of lettuce (L22) had parasitic contamination. E.coli was observed only in samples 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 9 of cucumber and in samples 1, 15, 17, 28, 36 and 40 of lettuce.
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